17 August 2004 -- Police say armed men killed two senior police officials in the Caspian Sea port of Kaspiisk in the republic of Daghestan today.

A spokesman for Daghestan's police force, Abdul Musaev, said Gadzhi Abdurazakov, head of the Interior Ministry's department for fighting extremism and crime, and Aleksandr Groshev, a high-ranking counterterrorist official, were shot at close range by three masked gunmen as they were heading to work together. The attackers then sped away in a car.

Daghestan has been the site of recurrent violence, some of which is spillover from the war in neighboring Chechnya and some that is committed by the republic's criminal gangs.

(ITAR-TASS/AP)

For the latest news on the situation in Daghestan, see RFE/RL's webpage on the region here.